Second cow tests positive for bluetongue Disease

Debby Reynolds warned farmers there was no vaccine currently available to protect against the bluetongue strain that has infected two cows on a farm in Suffolk. None will be ready for at least year, she admitted.

	A second cow at the rare breeds farm has been found to have the disease

This leaves restriction zones and movement bans as the Government's only defence against the deadly insect-bourne virus that has already infected thousands of farms across the continent.

"Blue tongue vaccines are strain specific and there is no vaccine available for this particular strain," Ms Reynolds said. "There is one under development but no country has it."

The second animal to test positive for the virus is located at the same farm where the UK's first case of the disease was discovered, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

The cow, at the Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm, near Ipswich, was slaughtered two days after blue tongue was detected in Debbie, the star of the popular visitor attraction.

A Defra spokeswoman said: "I can confirm a second cow has tested positive for bluetongue and was slaughtered this afternoon on the same farm. The evidence remained insufficient to confirm an outbreak."

The second confirmed case - albeit on the same farm as the first - will raise fears that the isolated outbreak could soon turn into a full blown outbreak, particularly with strong winds expected in the next few days.

Officials have imposed restrictions on most of East Anglia, from Lincs to Suffolk, along the same lines as foot and mouth.

No livestock can be moved outside the area, except to slaughter, although farm to farm movements are permitted within the zone, subject to strict conditions.

The Government's chief vet, Debby Reynolds, said the restrictions would remain until they had established whether or not the disease had spread.

Farmers in Suffolk were close to despair at the prospect of bluetongue, which has swept across Northern Europe, gaining a foothold in Britain.

One, Ben Woolf, who farms close to the outbreak at Baylham House Rare Breeds Farm, near Ipswich, said: "In the short term, foot and mouth is clearly a more devastating disease because it wipes out whole herds. It's the unknown with bluetongue. How long is it going to last? What's the long-term economic impact going to be - that's the real concern?"

The area around Baylham is mainly devoted to arable farming with only a limited number of cattle holdings and even fewer sheep farms. Sheep are regarded as most vulnerable to the disease with up to a 50 per cent mortality rate when bluetongue strikes a herd, according to local NFU officials. Pigs are immune.

"We are just keeping our fingers crossed that test results will come back negative," said one. "After the floods this year and, then, foot and mouth disease, bluetongue is the last thing our industry needed."

Although, locally, it is believed that the insects that brought the disease must have been borne on the wind from the Continent, Robert Sturdy, MEP for the area, questioned this theory and said that it was crucial that Defra establish exactly how the midge thought to be responsible got here.

"We need to know how it arrived in the country against the prevailing wind. It is unlikely that it could have flown in from northern Europe where the disease has been prevalent," he said. "One possibility is that it could have arrived in the country on a container. Everything must be done to eradicate the bluetongue virus to ensure there are no further outbreaks.

"One possible course of preventative action is to consider whether future precautions should include the sterilization of all steel containers entering the UK to kill insects."

There was, at least, some good news - it rained.

"Midges and other biting insects that carry bluetongue don't like the rain," said one farmer near the scene where the killer disease was detected over the weekend. "Winter's coming, too. We're all just praying that, after foot and mouth, this is one bullet we will be able to dodge."

Professor Philip Mellor of the Institute of Animal Health at Pirbright, where the bluetongue samples are being tested, said the virus replicated in the body of insects at temperatures above 15C so a cold winter could stamp out a possible outbreak.

"What we really need is a cold, wet autumn and winter with weather from the Atlantic," he said.

"If we get a cold snap where it never gets above 10C for a month, the virus would not be able to replicate. And if the temperature gets really low, it will kill the insects."